Kate del Castillo: Mexican Actress Praises ‘World’s Most Powerful Drug Trafficker’

Mexican actress Kate del Castillo shocked fans Tuesday by offering support to drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, who was named the world's most powerful drug trafficker this week by the U.S. Treasury Department.

Today, I trust in El Chapo Guzman more than I do the governments that hide painful truths, that hide the cure for cancer, AIDS, etc. for their own benefit and wealth, the actress wrote on Twextra for her Twitter account as translated by The International Business Times.

Mr. Chapo. Wouldn't it be swell if you started trafficking in good? In cures for diseases, in food for street children, in alcohol for the elderly in shelters where they are not allowed to spend their last years doing whatever the f_ck they feel like, in trafficking with corrupt politicians and not with women and children who end up like slaves, the actress continues. In burning down all those whorehouses where a woman isn't worth more than a pack of cigarettes, there is no demand without supply, get on it sir, you'd be a hero among heroes, let's traffic in love, you know how.

Life is a business, the only thing that changes is the product, the message ends. The 39-year-old actress did not specify what she meant by governments in her post.

Marianne Sauvage, del Castillo's publicist, has confirmed in an email to The Associated Press that the actress did in fact write the post and that the Twitter account belongs to del Castillo.

Guzman has been targeted by the U.S. Treasury Department for his role as leader of the largest drug trafficking organization in Mexico. He was arrested in 1993, but escaped from prison in 2001, and has since been on the run. He has been identified in the Kingpin Drug Act in 2001 and 2009. U.S. citizens are currently prohibited from conducting financial or commercial transactions with him in an effort to curb that corporate empires of narcotics traffickers. According to reports from The Associated Press, approximately 47,000 people have been reportedly killed by drug violence from Dec. 2006 to Sept. 2011.

The Sinaloa cartel leader has a $7 million bounty on his head and has been recognized as Mexico's leading and most powerful drug lord. Forbes magazine claims Guzman has an estimated fortune of $1 billion made through drug trafficking.

Nonetheless, Guzman has a reputation for protecting his heartland, Sinaloa.

Chapo has allegedly paid for schools, hospitals, and other public projects, Guzman's biographer Malcom Beith told Reuters. Second, he's just about the only source of employment in parts of Sinaloa. And he has provided security of a sort. He's been known to apprehend small-time crooks or thugs when they got out of hand. Lastly, the name Chapo pretty much puts the fear of God into people.

Del Castillo seems hopeful that Guzman can promote change in Mexico despite the ineffectiveness of President Felipe Calderon's government.

The Mexican theater and television actress has most famously starred as a female drug trafficker in the hit Mexican TV series La Reina del Sur (Queen of the South). She was named one of the Stars of the Year in 2007 and one of the 25 Most Influential Women in People en Español magazine.

Del Castillo made her acting debut in a film called The Last Escape in 1980. Since then she has become well known in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Peru, Venezula and among Latin American audiences in the U.S. The actress was named Ambassador for the Mexican Commision on Human Rights in 2009. She also helped launch the Blue Heart Campaign in 2010 to fight human trafficking.

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